Descent into Darkness
by DigiTails
Summary: Five hundred years after the death of Ashera, Soren continues to suffer from the loss of Ike. Something about Ike's death triggered him to cause destruction and devastation on Tellius after returning to it.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I hereby say that I don't own the characters  
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**Shameless handwave: Inspired by the lovely keiiii on deviantART. I don't know if Keiiii's approves of how my idea on how evil Soren would be, but whatever.**

**Warning: For an important plot element, I took some _liberty_ with canonical information in the game. As in, they never explicitly said that it couldn't happen. So, don't hound me on that part.**

**Extra warning: You won't like the ending.**

**Extra extra warning: Fanon in here is slightly different then in "Light and Anima". Not that anyone read that, or cared about it.  
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**Final Note: Paragraph breaks are basically breaks in thought.**

**Final final note: There is a reason why all of the dialog is in italics. That is explained at the end.  
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* * *

**"_You're the one behind all of this death? Who are you?"_

Soren only smiled.

"_Do you know of Ike?"_

Their faces had been shocked. It was a long time before they answered.

"_Of course we do. He's the great hero. If he were around now, you wouldn't stand a chance."_

Soren couldn't hide his mirth at their ignorance. He had to laugh at the fact that they knew of Ike, but not Ike's constant companion and tactician. He had to laugh at it. He left them to their confusion at his laughter using an arcane magic that he had mastered and warped away.


	2. Travels

Over five hundred years had passed since Ike had died. Soren had seen it coming. Ike had grown old, gained wrinkles. Despite his age, Ike had never understood why Soren had grown more melancholy with each passing day. Soren had cursed Ike for being dense the entire time.

When it had come time for Ike to go, the now silver-haired man had surprised Soren with a revelation that showed how much he understood.

"_I'm sorry, Soren. I've been trying to figure out something for you to do when I die. Been trying for years. I can't think of anything you'd actually do._"

It was his laguz blood that had alerted him to it. Ike only had moments left to live. Soren cursed and begged Ike not to die, foolish as it was. Soren said he'd do anything, anything, if only Ike would stay. Ike, perhaps realizing how limited his time was, only laughed.

"You need to live Soren, and do something with your life." Ike had taken a moment to breathe. Soren saw the light fading from his eyes. "Live. Don't give up."

* * *

Soren had been listless for days, unknowing what to do. It was Ike's last request. The last thing, the hardest thing, Ike had ever asked of him. He had no choice but to fulfill it. When he felt almost too starved to move, he slowly gathered himself together to eat. He had no idea what to do with his life. His decisions had been based around how to best help Ike, the first person to ever show him kindness and offer a warm hand.

Soren had spent years continuing to wander outside of Tellius. Ike and Soren had only barely made it across the desert to get to the wolf queen's country and go beyond that into another country. Soren stayed in the lands Ike had died in. Highly populated, but he couldn't figure out the name. They had a different language here, only Soren could speak it fluently. It had taken Ike years to learn the basics.

He skirted with insanity several times. Mostly towards the beginning of the time Soren recognized as A.I. (After Ike). In the end, Ike's last words came back to him, and spared him from complete lucidity.

Ten years later he found himself constantly gravitating back towards the desert the two had crossed at first.

Twenty years later, Soren went as far from the desert, from Tellius, from the place where Ike had died, as possible. He even tried, and failed, to cross the ocean.

A hundred years since Ike's passing, Soren found himself at the desert once again.

It took him two weeks to cross it and return to Tellius. The first place he found himself in was Daein. The queen had abdicated the throne to one of her children and disappeared after the death of her husband. Soren had gleaned no satisfaction in knowing that the queen was going through the same pain he felt. He did not even think to speak to her on it.

He went to Crimea, he found that Mist had died giving birth to her and Boyd's children. Were Ike still alive, he would have been a great-great-great-great-great-great-granduncle. Soren only stopped once to see what were Ike's several times great nephews and nieces. He didn't think to care for them. They were beorc, and he had no desire to feel such stinging pain again. Everyone from his old mercenary unit had died, only some had had heirs. Soren didn't care to see them.

Soren teetered on the edge of Gallia for a long time. Almost the instant he crossed the border he was pounced upon by Ranulf. Ranulf showed signs of aging, but was still happy to see him. It took the laguz only a moment to guess what had happened to Ike. Soren passed on the decision to visit Skrimir, who was still on the throne. Soren barely paid heed to Ranulf as he rambled on about what had happened since they had left. Elincia and Geoffrey had had children, and one of their descendants was currently ruling Crimea. Sanaki's descendants were ruling Begnion. Tibarn had been wrested of the throne of Serenes by one of Naesala and Leanne's child. Stefan had founded a small country in the Grann desert. Kurthnaga had opened up Goldoa's borders and ended its isolationist policy.

Soren only lifted an eyebrow at the mention of Goldoa, but Ranulf noticed and went on about everything in Goldoa. Ena had given birth to her and Rajaion's child, the nearly thirty years it had taken to begin gestating was apparently not too uncommon for dragons. Almedha had found another mate, but they seemed to be unable to procreate. Kurthnaga was showing no signs of taking in interest in a mate. Gareth was continuing in his duty as Kurthnaga's bodyguard and Nasir was helping Ena raise her child.

Soren left Ranulf behind as quickly as he could and made his way to Goldoa. The dragons gave him a look, but they left him alone. Soren, even though he had walked off, had heard Almedha talking to Kurthnaga. He knew that he was Ashnard's and her son. He had kept that information from Ike; the swordsman would have forced him to visit a family he had no interest in. He had no idea why he wanted to go to Goldoa, as he had no interest in familial bonds, just something within him wanted him to.

Kurthnaga greeted him cheerfully. Soren returned the greeting with one of apathy. Kurthnaga had Soren stay in Goldoa for several years. Almedha and Ena tried to get him to warm up, but that only made him remain even more obstinately stoic. Not one of them ever mentioned that Almedha was his mother, not even the woman herself, which surprised him. She had gone through so much trouble and put her family through straights for someone that was not her true son, and she did not seem to care about him. Not that he cared, that was actually the way he wanted it to be.

After several years Soren moved away from Goldoa, having had enough with dragons. He moved through Begnion. He made his way through the Serenes forest to go up back into Daein and then leave Tellius. Reyson surprised him by appearing. As much as Soren tried cover his feelings, the heron saw through his ploys. Soren placidly told the heron to go away, he just wanted to get to Daein. Reyson stood steadfast in Soren's way and moved whenever the mage tried to go past him. The heron used his mind-reading abilities to say the things that made Soren want to stay and talk. Soren saw through his ploy, blasted the heron with wind and marched off.

He stayed as far from the Grann desert as he could. The thought of seeing Stefan made the mage both content and angry at the same time. He remembered Stefan's offer over one hundred, and still held no want to take the man up on it.

He made it back to the desert ten years after he had last crossed it. He had crossed it twice, and he crossed a third time, hoping never to cross it again.

He spent little over three hundred eighty years in those lands. He had figured out the name, but didn't care for it. During his time in Tellius, the wolf queen had moved all of her people across the desert. The lands were almost devoid of life. The towns crumbled and fell to ruins with none to care for them. He spent hundreds of years alone, living off the land as best he could. He came back to the country Ike had died in. There were only dead bodies to be found in it.

Curiosity drove him to find the source of the death and destruction. He came across life, eventually. An arrogant young man that had raised a military dictatorship over the land beleaguered the citizens.

* * *

Soren sat in chair, a parchment in front of him with a quill poised over the paper. This land had moved beyond magic, most people didn't even know of parchment or how to use a quill. Soren didn't care for their new inventions, he stuck stubbornly with what he knew, but he absorbed the knowledge that they had. He put the quill back into the inkpot and sat back to think.

He had to do something with his life, but he had nothing he cared to do. He was a tactician, but he would use his skills for only Ike, but Ike was dead. He was a mage in a land that cared not for magic. His mind trailed back to all of the dead people and the hundreds that were dying daily. He knew Ike would stand up and destroy this man, because that's the person Ike was. Ike hated senseless destruction of lives. Soren didn't care about the people, though. When Ike and everyone else in the mercenaries chose love and compassion he chose logic, because logic would help Ike more. There was no logic in fighting this beorc, for that was all that lived here, though he could easily kill this person with his mastery over all things arcane.

Soren capped the inkpot, bundled up his small supply of parchment, ink, and quill. Do something with his life, Ike had said. And he would. It wouldn't be much, wouldn't take long, but it would fulfill Ike's dying wish.


	3. Descent

It took him several days to find the beorc in charge. Soren came across him in a village, slaughtering innocents. Soren didn't even look at the bodies. He found the person, and raised a hand. He had gone beyond the need for holding tomes; all he needed was the book somewhere on his person. Lightning fell from the sky and struck the general. His dispassionate expression changed to one of shock as the lightning was deflected off a barrier surrounding his target. Soren ducked behind some shelter immediately and tried to think of his options.

He looked to the skies and used his favorite element, wind, to create a strong wind across the town. He could make it look like a storm was coming to cover his failed attack.

* * *

It hadn't worked. His target had found him. Soren would later curse the fact that he had made himself upwind of his target. The man was a Branded like himself, but unlike Soren, he thought to use his longer life to rule people. The man was a trusting fool and believed Soren's glaring lies that he desired to help these pathetic wretches to be conquered. Soren despised it, but he knew he could get more information from pretending to work with the man then by fighting him. He hated it, only because he was forced to help him as he had once helped Ike.

Soren found out many things. The man was learned in what magic was and capable of doing, a possibility Soren hadn't thought of because there were no laguz in this land and the beorc had moved away from magic in three centuries. He had an amulet he had sewn into his body that protected him from all magical attacks, and even most physical blows. They had to be exceptionally strong to get through.

Soren knew that there was nothing to kill him in this land. All that could kill him was in Tellius; the people here had given up the way of a warrior. Soren thought to leave to Tellius many times. He tried. He had no desire to stay and try to kill this man pointlessly. Each time the man met him and Soren had to lie about his intentions. He had to live. Ike had asked him to. Soren was not foolish enough to start a fight he could not win. And this man was not as foolish as Soren thought. Soren found out that only a drop of blood was all that was needed to create a blood contract, even when the signer was unwilling to make it. He also discovered that blood pacts didn't need to be made by rulers; they could be made between any two people based on the terms written down.

That grated Soren, but the man went back to foolishness. He thought that because Soren was bound by blood to him, that Soren would not deceive him.

Soren decided not to take anything for granted about this man's intelligence and cunning. He had one thing over this person, however. He was hundreds of years older and wiser.

Even while talking to him, Soren had thoughts of how to free himself. He knew how to break a contract. The man had to die, or he did. But Ike had told him not to give up, so Soren would have this person killed by someone. It needed to be someone strong enough to get past the barrier. Ike could have, were he still in his prime and alive.

Soren toyed with the idea of bringing Ike back. Only once. There was no way to bring back the long since dead. There was no way to have Ike reborn by magic. He could manipulate events and have someone like Ike come to be strong enough. He had all the time it would take to do so, but it was impossible. He could not recreate events that perfectly and there was no way to guarantee that it would work. And even if he could use death as a means to rebirth Ike, when Ike learned of it, he would hate Soren. Soren would rather Ike be dead then have Ike hate him. Ike was gone, he'd need to find a new hero, and he would have to do so in complete secrecy.

A new thought came to him the next day, and he knew he could make it work. Soren had become learned of all the arcane arts, even ones that were forbidden. He could use all forms of magic. As such, he was an expert and the man believed his word as though it were the word of a god. He led the man along a breadcrumb trail of lies. If the man would kill enough people, Soren could put the strength from their life force into an object that when fully saturated he could use to bring back a dead warrior of great prowess that would do his bidding. The man believed everything; Soren didn't even smile to gloat in his victory. He had won.

He had truly won when after several more years; Soren convinced him that there was a land with stronger people across a vast desert. Going there would fulfill his ambitions faster. They went to Tellius.

Soren had watched in dismay as the amulet failed to gain power as quickly as he had hoped, even with thousands dead. He didn't care that so many were gone, rather the sheer numbers it would take to give the seal the strength it needed and that the entire country would be gone and it wouldn't be half full. So he moved his plan forward, they had to go to Tellius. Soren thought that the strength of the people there, rather then these insipid beorc, would give it strength faster. But that also meant, he would need to find his chosen warrior faster. But he already knew where to look. One of Mist's descendants would be perfect, for in that person's blood would flow Ike's bloodline.


	4. Tellius

Soren was standing in a town square where almost a hundred people had been killed. The blood coated the stones. The man had already left, leaving Soren to his work. He was chanting as the seal on the palm sized pendant glowed blue, absorbing the strength of the people that had been killed.

_"HEY, YOU!" _A voice called out.

Soren ignored it and stepped forward, dodging a sword strike. It was like Tellius was in a time hold, so little had changed about it in three centuries. That was probably due to the presence of the laguz.

When he was finished, Soren turned around, dodging another strike. He raised his hand to hit the impudent fool with a magical blast; intent on killing him and using this person's own force and instead struck him with wind, knocking him back.

Soren's neutral expression upturned. He had found the person he was looking for. He could see it in the hateful expression on his face. The same expression Ike had when looking, or thinking, about the countless people Ike had labeled vile and putrid. This person bore no physical resemblance to Ike, but that did not matter.

No words were exchanged as this person tried to attack him. Soren dodged and counter attacked, holding back, seeing how strong this person was. He found that this person was as strong as Ike had been at the start of the Mad King's war. Soren used his magic to disappear.

* * *

Soren spent his time weeding more lies into his pawn's, for that was the only term applicable, constant diet of lies. Gentle ones. Ones that the boy would give Soren all the life force he needed, but only if he could get stronger. The man smiled and said that the boy would get stronger, and follow a trail of bodies. Soren didn't care. He had no intentions of killing the boy; he would keep saying that he needed the boy stronger while feeding the amulet the strength of the dead body trail until it was saturated.

* * *

All of the nations were worked into frenzy at the news. Aside from Golda and Serenes, there was none left that Soren had known. He cared not about that thought. Ike was dead, that was all that mattered to him.

The boy spearheaded their efforts at stopping the madness, following Soren's breadcrumb trail and gaining strength. Kurthnaga left the throne to come and see what was happening. Soren had been surprised by seeing the dragon king on the battlefield, but quickly reworked his plans. Soren merely told his master that he could finish faster then expected, if all most of the boy's companions lived and gained strength too. His lies were believed.

Soren kept the fact that the souls of Tellius barely gave the fetish more strength then the ones from the other country to himself. He couldn't figure out why it wasn't working like he wanted it to. But now it was almost half full.

* * *

While Soren was cleaning up in a town Kurthnaga came. The dragon king was clearly perturbed by all the blood on the streets. Soren securely fastened the fetish into his robes and looked at the dragon.

_"Why are you doing this, Soren?"_ Kurthnaga whispered when he was close enough.

_"For Ike."_

Kurthnaga balked, _"Ike would not approve of this wanton destruction. You can't believe that."_

Soren gave Kurthnaga a cold look. _"You lecture me about what Ike would care for? You were not with him when he died. You did not know him." His voice was still, devoid of emotion._

_"Soren!"_ Kurthnaga started. After a moment, _"What changed you, Soren? You weren't like this before when you came to Goldoa." _At Soren's lack of response Kurthnaga looked him in the eye, _"Why? Soren, why do you kill all of these people? They didn't do anything to you."_

Soren repeated his previous answer, _"For Ike,"_ and left the dragon to ponder the meaning of his words.

* * *

"_So who is Ike?"_ The man asked later.

"_The warrior I shall revive for you, that will allow you to complete your destiny."_

"_Doesn't sound like he'll help me, from what that guy said."_

"_He won't have a choice."_

"_You're sure?"_

"_I'm sure."_

"_Alright."_

* * *

Soren had won. He would be freed. Soren did not know what laguz blood flowed in his pawn's veins, so he did not even think about his deception when the man was nearby. He thought about what the man would want to know and hear.

* * *

He was in a room, working to arrange something, almost a year after entering Tellius. Ike had told him everything of Yune. There was no way the goddess of chaos was blind to what was happening. She would stop him. Yune needed to be taken care of. She had appeared to him once, after Ike had died, when he was in despair, when he had thought about the different methods he could use to bring Ike back. She had told him that not even she could. She had explained things to him. Things about her power. That knowledge was what he would use to keep Yune from interfering.

_"Soren, what are you doing?" _He recognized the intonation of that voice. It had barely changed in five hundred years. He didn't look up at her, but kept arranging everything. She had no need to ask; for there was no way she could not know.

_"I already know. Do you expect it to work?"_

He kept his full plan from thought and arranged a pillar._ "Yes."_

_"Yune won't fall for it."_

_"She will."_

Soren turned as he heard something move across the ground. He turned and saw she had pushed the pillar he had just moved out of alignment, by just a millimeter. He went back to it and moved it into place.

She scuffed a marking on the floor. He turned and glared at her.

_"I can see how you plan to make it work, now. I won't let you."_

Soren quirked an eyebrow. He blasted her with wind. She was slammed into a wall.

_"That's alright. You can't stop me."_

He raised his other hand. Magical bonds tied her onto the wall and kept her from hindering him any further. He could kill her later, if she hadn't become part of his plans.

_"She can't power it. Your spell relies on mortal strength, she's-"_

_"Not mortal. I know. I have a different fate in mind for her."_

_"Care to fill me in?"_ He could tell that she was struggling against the bonds that he had created.

_"Not particularly."_ He had redrawn the mark.

_"How do you plan to make her appear here?"_

Soren turned to her and lifted a hand. She floated close to him, to the center of the circle. He stepped back away, out of the circle he had created on the floor. He began chanting the spell. The markings on the floor glowed blue. She struggled harder, trying to escape. She could sense that if Yune didn't show, he would kill her.

_"Stop."_

Soren turned as he heard the goddess's voice. There was the young girl that had appeared to Ike after he had killed Ashera, and to him while he was in despair.

_"Let her go."_

Soren didn't look away from Yune. He didn't let her go. But the light faded from the marks and she was safe for the moment.

_"I know what you're planning, Soren."_

_"Stop me." _He dared her, tempted fate.

_"I can't."_

_"You've sapped all of your strength through what you did in the war three hundred years ago and you haven't recovered yet." _He surmised.

_"Yes. You're right."_

For a goddess she was pathetically weak. She was just a piece in his plan.

_"Right. So, I'm not going to stop, I think."_ Soren turned away from Yune. Giving Ike the power to kill her other half had destroyed her own abilities. The problem was, she would tell everyone his true plan, and that would ruin him. She did not even have the strength to free him. She had to go, her mind reading ability was far greater then the woman he was using as bait. And too dangerous to let lie around like that.

_"Leave her be."_

Soren turned to Yune again._ "Do you plan on trading places?"_

_"No!" _The bound woman cried.

"_I shall take Micaiah's place, if you agree to spare her."_

_"Of course," _he smiled, unable to help himself. He waved a hand and the woman went back to the wall.

Yune floated to the center of his circle. He started the spell. The marks glowed blue. In a flash of light, she was gone. The only part that perturbed Soren was her smile. He wondered if she knew something that he didn't, but quickly put the thought out of mind.

An orb of blue flames floated in the air. What was left of her strength converted into raw energy. Soren pulled another pendant out of his robes and gently doused it in the flames. They were absorbed into the fist-sized pendant. He waited to see if it would wreak havoc upon him, but there was no after-effect. As he had thought, without her in it, this would not act like the Fire Emblem. He tucked that into his robes and looked at the woman on the wall, with a dismissive wave of his hand she fell to the floor. He vanished.

* * *

Months later Soren was confronted by his pawn about the seal.

_"They have gained enough strength. I say we should kill them now and be done with it. They are such an obstacle now."_

_"I cannot be sure of it. Just a little longer."_

_"Any longer and they'll be a threat to me."_

Soren inwardly sighed, he had to move forward with his plans, faster then he intended. The seal was not yet saturated, but he had to go onto the final phase of his work.

_"I can guarantee that they will not be."_

_"How so?"_

Soren reached into his robes and teetered on which he should pull out. Which one would be stronger? He pulled out the one with Yune's strength.

_"I killed a goddess and put her power into this."_

_"Why didn't you add her power to the other one? It would be full now if you had."_

_"It is filled with mortal energy. Adding hers to the mix would have caused a catastrophe. However, I witnessed her adding her strength to a mortal. When you go to kill them, I shall give you her strength so that you will overwhelm them."_

He laughed._ "I like the way you think, Soren. Very well. I can wait."_

* * *

Within that week two people visited him while he was alone. He spared neither of them a second glance. One was the heron that had been prime minister and the other was a woman with orange hair and a blue dress.

_"Soren,"_ the woman said. Her voice was comfortingly maternal. He had to consciously avoid the effect it had on him. He looked at her and she continued. _"Thank you for what you did. If you had never dispelled Yune, I could not return."_

He turned away,_ "If that's what you came here for, you can leave. I didn't do it to return you. I did it because it's a part of my plan."_

_"You do not truly intend to revive Ike, do you?"_

_"That is impossible. What I aim to do is possible." _He had no ambitions that were unattainable. He just wanted to fulfill Ike's last wish, do something with his life. Do something Ike would do. He wanted to be free of the pact he was in. Both meant killing the man that had battled him, taken his blood, and used that to sign the contract, binding Soren to him. "And unless you can achieve my goals for me, I have nothing else to say to you."

_"Just awakened, and having no strength from either part of me, I cannot free you. I cannot kill him."_

The dark winged heron reached a hand out to him._ "I'm sorry that you suffer like this, child."_

Soren stared at him for a moment. His voice was cold enough to turn the air to liquid. _"You know not how I feel. You sought the destruction of the world out of despair. I seek to obey Ike's last requests of me. Don't try to tell me how you sympathize with me, for you cannot."_

Soren turned his back to them and went about his work. They disappeared.

* * *

Within the month it was time. Soren had won. Now was the time to claim his victory. All he needed to was convince the man to wait in this room as he went below. The seal was stronger, but not strong enough. He would instead use his other fetish.

_"Come on, they're a thorn in my side this entire time, and you won't let me kill them?"_

_"They are not strong enough yet. Let me fight them, I will make them strong enough through battle."_

_"And you'll give me the goddess's power, so that I will be victorious. Right?"_

_"Of course."_

He didn't think about his deception.

_"And then you'll summon that dead warrior Ike, who will help me take over this land, using the strength you get from their deaths?"_

_"Of course."_

_"But if I have the goddess's strength, why have we need of him?"_

_"It will be a temporary boon of only a few minutes. This summoning will last years."_

_"You're sure?"_

_"Beyond a shadow of a doubt."_

_"Alright, I trust you, Soren. Go on, then."_

_"First. May I ask you a question?"_

_"Yes?"_

_"What laguz blood flows through you?"_

_"Wolf. My mother left me with my father when she came here. What of you?"_

_"None have ever told me."_

_"You haven't figured it out?"_

_"Most probably dragon."_

He laughed. _"Then I'm lucky to have you on my side."_


	5. Mastermind

Soren didn't think about what he would do even when he was below. Wolf made sense with the geography. But what didn't make sense was his ability to always find him when he tried to sneak out. He was lying about something. Soren was sure of that. Or wolves had abilities he didn't know about.

Soren was standing in a large room; large enough for a battle he knew he needed to have, when they entered. The boy was the first to speak.

_"You! I knew that you're the one behind all of this!"_

Kurthnaga, his nephew, Ena, Stefan, the dark winged heron, and the silver haired woman were with the crowd of laguz and beorc he had never seen.

_"Soren!" _Stefan cried out in surprise. The green haired man looked older, but Soren could tell he still had his vitality._ "Is it true? Did you cause all of this?"_

Soren walked forward and reached into his robe. He pulled out the twin pendants. He would need to waste time to keep the man from using the blood contract the moment he appeared. The one he had created first was nowhere near full. He would pull this off.

_"Do you know what these are?"_

The dark winged heron answered, _"Yes. Amulets imbued with the strength of those who were alive. One has mortal, the other has what was Yune's strength. Those two combined can power a strong summon, if the other one was full."_

The boy turned on his companion,_ "What does that matter?"_

_"He is not just proficient at the arcane arts, he knows all the dark and forbidden ones, too."_

_"There's no reason for them to be forbidden." _Soren countered, _"They are only called that from fear and superstition. Throwing them in a corner and forgetting about them makes them impossible to avoid when you face a foe who has cared to learn about them and use them."_

The boy spoke,_ "Like you, you mean?"_

_"Perhaps. Or perhaps, I mean the one that intends to destroy you."_

_"What do you mean? Aren't you that person?"_

_"If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. You think that when you faced me last I was trying?" _Soren shook his head. _"Your next foe has a protective amulet that he created from the dark arts. He formed it out of one of his organs. It keeps him shielded from all magical attacks and anything but the strongest physical attacks." Soren lifted the two pendants into the air._

_"Soren!" _Kurthnaga cried out._ "What are you doing?"_

Soren sighed and looked at the group. He cast a hand out, blue binds formed around them all, holding them in place. He lifted the pendants into the air and chanted. They glowed blue, a sphere of energy came out of each and one went back into the pendant. Soren put them back into his robes.

_"That is precisely what I am doing."_

Soren raised his hand, the binds dispersed. _"Now." _He raised his hands. _"Show me how strong you are."_

They all came at him, they were organized. Soren had been expecting that. The laguz transformed. Soren knew that would happen too. He easily compensated and overpowered them. He did not spare a single one, not even the healers, from his attacks. Without needing to show the tome that he would use, their tactics were tangled into a hopeless knot. He went from casting lightning to wind to fire to light to dark in any order he deemed necessary. He even used a small staff he kept on his person to heal himself. All without ever touching a thing.

He had found that without fumbling around to pull out a tome and get to the right page, he could carry more offensive means and that the weapons lasted almost infinitely. Without worrying about having to hold onto his only means of attack or protecting it, he could move around easily. It had taken him decades of intense training to master it, but its worth proved in how confused he made them and how well he beat them.

After an intense battle when they were all exhausted Soren finally quit. He let the boy hit him with his sword one last time. He was barely tired, while they were almost collapsing.

_"It seems that you win." _Soren turned and exited. He used a warp staff on his waist, next to his heal staff, to go directly to the man waiting for him above.

* * *

"_Will they come?"_

"_Of course. They will. They have herons. They can sense where I went."_

"_Good."_ He smiled at Soren and clapped him on the shoulder.

"_I can't wait to see how powerful this Ike guy is."_

Soren nodded. He still did not think of the deception. He thought only of Ike's raw strength. The strength that had united Tellius.

"_He will be powerful enough."_

_And he was tearing it apart._

That thought stopped Soren cold. He then brushed it aside.

"_Are you ready? Do you need do to anything to give me that power?"_

"_No. I don't."_

"_When will they come?"_

"_Not for several more hours, if they are as clever out of battle as they are in it."_

"_And if they aren't?"_

"_In a few minutes."_

* * *

It was somewhere in between that they came. Soren's laguz blood alerted him to their coming. He reached into his robes and pulled out the pendant that he had sealed Yune's power in. Soren handed it to him and began the chant that would unseal the power and give it to the owner of the pendant. The blue flames surrounded him. He grinned wildly.

_"This is raw power. Thank you, Soren."_

They entered just as the spell finished.

_"So, I'll just hurry up and kill them so we can get on with it, eh?"_

Soren nodded stiffly and moved to the corner of the room. _"And I'll wait here."_

The boy looked at the man and then at Soren. _"What's going on here?"_

_"Soren just gave me a great deal of power, that I'm going to use to vanquish you. Then he's going to use the strength he can get from your deaths to help me take over Tellius by summoning a dead warrior."_

_"Who?"_

_"Ike."_

The boy laughed. _"Ike wouldn't even think before killing the two of you monsters."_

_"He won't have a choice in the matter."_

Soren couldn't stand this. He hated reading this part in fairy tales or in epics. He hated the long exchanges between foes before last battles.

_"Then die!"_

_"Try to kill me."_

With that their battle started. They came at him. He easily fended them off, helped mostly by his barrier. Soren watched the battle. He bided his time, waiting for his opportune moment, hand in his robes, clutching the other pendant. When it came Soren snapped out a hand and said a quick incantation. A bolt of thunder flew from his finger tips and flew at the man. It bounced off the barrier, but it broke the battle. While casting lightning, he tossed the pendant to the boy. Instinctively he caught it and Soren said the release incantation. Blue flames flew from it and surrounded the boy.

_"Soren! What's the meaning of this?" _The man cried out.

Soren did not look at him, but at the boy,_ "Kill him while you can. That won't last forever."_

_"But, you're bound to me!"_

Soren raised an eyebrow._ "That matters because?"_

_"WHAT?!" _The man shouted.

There was no more room for words as the boy attacked with renewed vigor. This time, he easily overwhelmed the man's magical barrier and dealt a finishing blow. The man turned to Soren and flung his sword at him. Soren quirked an eyebrow and the sword plunged into his body. Soren simply pulled it out of his chest without even a grimace.


	6. Epilogue

All these thoughts ran through Soren's mind as he lay on the ground, his blood slowly pouring out from the wound in his body.

His mind was fully functioning, but the blade had pierced his lungs. Words were beyond his ability to speak fluently, and he had no desire to gasp out anything to them. Instead he reached into his robes, deep enough that the blood hadn't reached it yet, and pulled out a packet of parchment, neatly tied and folded together. Kurthnaga took it. Soren worked out enough to say his last words.

_"That's all I learned about magic."_

And the world went black.

* * *

**I warned you that you wouldn't like it. Maybe because it sucks, maybe because it involves Soren's death.**

**Or maybe you're happy that it's over. I don't know, so why don't you get rid of my ignorance?  
**

**Italics in the dialog in other parts are because those are Soren's dying thoughts. The name thing is also because that's how Soren cares to think about them.**

**I heard once that you use names for people you care about. I used names for all the people that Soren probably eventually warmed up to, despite his melancholy later in life. A subconscious thing, really. And the lack of details is a stylistic thing I did because Soren wouldn't really spend time being highly detailed in his thoughts, especially after developing some form of sociopathy, slight negative schizophrenia, and fun stuff like that. He just doesn't _care_. Soren isn't at the cut his wrists point, nor is he really ready to enjoy life. He's very neutral and removed. Really, everything he did, was just because of Ike's last request.  
**

**Like I said earlier, inspired totally by keiiii on deviantart. Does really great fire emblem arts. Look it up.**

**Had some ideas I toyed with, and got rid of. Like Soren putting his life force into the seal to give enough strength to the boy and sacrifice himself....but that didn't seem like Soren. Same story about a long talk when he died. And the dude being Nailah's kid. That didn't pan out either.**

**What happened that he didn't plan? Nothing. Except for the blood-pact thing. That caught him off gaurd. Though here's Soren's plan because he did not agree to say it, or think it, in the story.**

**Since he was in a blood pact to this guy and he had this barrier that protected him from all magics, Soren needed a way to get someone to kill the guy without being direct about it, in case he decided to kill him. So he used a forbidden art that he knew about to take the life force of people that were recently killed into a seal of sorts that would gain strength as more people were killed. The seal required probably well over ten thousand people to do so. Soren was uncomfortable with a long time being spent, because he thought that the man would get wise to his plans. So, he went to Tellius, which was originally at the end of the plan, to find a man that could gain enough strength to break through the barrier, expecially if he used the strength gathered in the seal to augment his choosen hero's strength. There was one problem, that was Yune, he didn't want her to try and ease Kurthnaga's worries by telling the dragon was up to, so he arranged to have Yune stripped of all her strength. This allowed her soul to fuse with the remnants of Ashera, because Ashera couldn't fully die if Yune was still alive, to from Asheruna, the being that they once were. He took the strength he stole from Yune and put that into a different seal, because mortal energy and the energy of gods don't mix in one of those seals. He told the man that he would give him Yune's strength, although he planned to give him the strength in the seal powered by mortals, because that was obviously much weaker. but the two seals were on different looking objects. So when he met the group before the final battle, he used an art to switch the two seals in each others' pendants, so he could get away with giving the man the wrong (right) power boost. The man didn't realize this, because the power was still considerable. Soren had no desire to live after seeing this man, whom Ike would have killed just on principle, dead. He had fullfilled Ike's last request, of doing something with his life, which was really all that kept him sane and alive. So he planned, that when the man realized his treachery, he would kill him.  
**


End file.
